Couples new and old in MBC’s weekend drama Man Who Sets the Table

This looks cute! I’m not normally a fan of long weekenders, but currently airing Father Is Strange over on KBS has dispelled a lot of the prejudices I had about the genre, so I’m looking forward to seeing whether I’ll enjoy MBC’s upcoming Man Who Sets the Table just as much. It doesn’t hurt that Ohn Joo-wan (Beautiful Gong Shim) and Sooyoung (Police Unit 38) look like they’ll make an adorable couple, at least from what we see in this first teaser.

It looks like Man Who Sets the Table will follow two couples, one in danger of being at the tail-end of their relationship, and the other who will bicker their way into beginning one. Kim Mi-sook (Flower in Prison) and Kim Gab-soo (Whisper) play a husband and wife who seem prone to violent outbursts: We see him flipping tables and her giving him some good smacks, hard enough to draw blood. Yikes. She asks for separation to his incredulity, and the teaser labels them “a couple who have lost love.”

Oh noes, Sooyoung’s character catches her cheating boyfriend, played by Lee Shi-un (Reunited Worlds), in the act and — in what I’m praying is a dream sequence — crashes his wedding to get into a hair-pulling catfight with the bride. I am so mortified for her, even though a part of me thinks Cheating McCheaterson deserves to have his wedding ruined, especially when he shoves Sooyoung to the ground and yells that love is only possible when the two are on the same level. Well, she might be the “woman who has lost her lover,” but there’s a better person for her out there, in the form of a shirtless Ohn Joo-wan!

Though he might have, err, “lost” something of his own. He gets examined by a doctor, and he’s told that he is no longer “capable as a man,” pffft. I’m sorry, it shouldn’t be funny, but it’s so. Funny. Especially when it looks like he’s trying to compensate by working out in the gym. It doesn’t look like he and Sooyoung had a great first meeting, though, judging by the intense shock and anger they both express upon seeing each other in a foreign resort. Hee, I’m so ready to see them bicker their way to love.

I’m pretty happy to see some very strong comedic elements in Man Who Sets the Table, since I’m unfamiliar with the writer Park Hyun-joo and PD Joo Sung-woo’s past shows, which include Wonderful Mama, Hundred Year Inheritance, Queen’s Flower, and Monster. I was worried that it would be too makjang, but at least from this teaser, it looks like there’s not as much melodrama as I was expecting. A good rom-com with an emphasis on the comedy is just what I need on the weekends to help lighten the watching experience after Rescue Me.

Man Who Sets the Table will premiere on September 2, taking over You’re Too Much in MBC’s Saturday-Sunday slot.

August 14, 2017 at 6:39 PM

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It's only the PD who was involved in Hundred Year Inheritance *painful wince*. The writer is someone else. I've only watched one thing this writer wrote - My Precious Child (from 2008)- which wasn't as bad as HYI. I remember giving up on it because I couldn't stand Ji Hyun Woo's character. It actually made me leery of Ji Hyun Woo for awhile.

The writer for that horrid HYI ended up writing Laurel Tree Tailors, which I liked from the episodes that I did see (like the first half of the drama)...so there is hope for writers of really bad makjang dramas, especially ones that lure you in with promise of noodles only to throw evil in-laws in your face.

August 15, 2017 at 3:33 PM

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True, HYI went all makjang and my heart was mind was all over the place but I adored Laurel Tree Tailors and it was a sort of redemption. Eugene and Lee Jung Jin still make me smile, although evil in-laws from HYI is not as bad as other shows I have seen lately. But from a blast from the past, that one takes the cake.

August 14, 2017 at 2:59 PM

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I would love to have a replacement of a warmhearted dramedy when Father is Strange is over, but this preview with all the domestic violent acts of pushing, shoving, and smacking makes it hard for me to get onboard. Additional sigh for hair-pulling between two women fighting over a guy.

August 14, 2017 at 3:03 PM

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I wish I could watch this now sigh. Just watched EP 3 of that freaking 'rescue me', and now I'm almost terrified, I don't think I've been this much spooked out by anything like this ever before.Sorry for spamming here.? Coming back to the topic, I already love the vibe between the leads, and probably this would my first time liking Sooyoung on any of her drama.

August 14, 2017 at 6:59 PM

August 14, 2017 at 6:14 PM

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LOL the teaser is so wacky and hilarious. I like how the captions are so dreamy and romantic in contrast to the crazy tone of the scenes ?

And is Ohn Joo-wan finally gonna get the girl? ? But I still have a secret wish to see Soo-young and Seo In-guk get together onscreen for a full-blown romance... ? Other than that, Lee Shi-Eon! ? Maybe I'll dip my toes into my first family drama ever, if he's gonna be hanging around for a long stretch in this drama...

August 17, 2017 at 12:58 AM

August 14, 2017 at 6:16 PM

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I think I may have to try this.
I jumped into Father is Strange towards the end, and I'm coming to the realization I'll probably just start at the beginning. So it would be better to give it a go at the start.

August 14, 2017 at 7:15 PM

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I'm trying not to get my hopes too high up from the trailers, especially when it's a weekend drama, which is usually loads of cliches. I'm tired of birth secrets, at least with Father is Strange, it's about identify theft.

August 14, 2017 at 9:30 PM

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My husband has a friend who cheated on his fiancee until the week before his wedding. Not to mention he was cheating with a high school girl who was his student in his class. Ugh. I just got reminded thanks to the cheating fiance plot above.